South China's Guangdong Province will pour about 300 million yuan (US$37.5 million) in vocational education in its underdeveloped eastern region in the next five years.

 

The provincial government will investment 200 million yuan (US$25 million) to build a new senior polytechnical school that can accommodate more than 10,000 students in Shantou City.

 

The government will also allocate 20 million yuan (US$2.5 million) to Shantou, Shanwei, Chaozhou and Jieyang each for expanding vocational schools.

 

The eastern part of Guangdong has a population of 15.8 million, or 17.3 percent of Guangdong's total, with its gross domestic product accounting for 6.9 percent of that of Guangdong.

 

Vocational education is a good way to transfer the region's rich labor resources from limited farmland, according to experts at a recent conference on promoting the development of the eastern region.

 

Besides building and expanding vocational schools, the provincial government will also set up a training center for vocational education in Shanwei, Chaozhou and Jieyang.

 

The provincial government will invest 170 billion yuan (US$21.2 billion) in industry, transportation, energy and agriculture in the eastern area to promote its economic development in the 2006-2010 period.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2006)